Huawei and Alibaba among companies seeking Chinese deepfake approvals (updated)

SenseTime

01/09/2023 11:12

(Rewrites to focus on deepfakes)
       BEIJING, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China's cyberspace regulator
has received 110 applications from Chinese technology companies
such as Huawei  HWT.UL  and Alibaba  9988.HK  for approvals
related to models that can be used to manipulate visual and
audio data.
    The firms, according to a list published on Friday by the
Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), are seeking the
approvals to comply with rules set out in December by the CAC
that govern the use of deepfake technology.
    This approval process is separate from the CAC's regulation
of Chinese tech firms looking to push out generative artificial
intelligence (AI) products, which have been in high demand ever
since the success of U.S. firm OpenAI's ChatGPT.
    Five Chinese tech firms, including Baidu Inc  9888.HK  and
SenseTime Group  0200.HK , on Thursday launched AI chatbots to
the public after receiving government approval.
    Unlike chatbots, which generate entirely new text, images
and audio based on prompts from the user, deepfakes use AI
technology to generate visual and audio data that is virtually
indistinguishable from the original, and easily used for
manipulation or misinformation.

 (Reporting by Eduardo Baptista, Josh Ye, and Brenda Goh
Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
 ((Eduardo.MonteiroBaptista@thomsonreuters.com;))